PENTAGON: NO PROOF OF IRAQ CHEMICAL WAR ON CIVILIANS

A final Pentagon report released Thursday has concluded there is "no substantiated evidence" of Iraqi use of chemical weapons against Iraqi civilians in the years since the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Unconfirmed charges have been circulating for years that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used chemical warfare to suppress a Shia rebellion in southern Iraq shortly after the gulf conflict ended.

Defense Secretary William Cohen cited Hussein's gassing of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq in the 1980s as partial justification for the American Operation Desert Fox aerial assault on Iraq in December 1998--a response to Hussein's ouster of UN weapons inspectors looking for chemical and biological warfare stockpiles.

In another report released Thursday, the Pentagon said it is "unlikely" that Iraq had chemical warfare agents stored at its Tallil air base.

The base was used as a launching site for chemical attacks against Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. It has been cited as a possible source of gulf war syndrome, the array of unexplained ailments and illnesses suffered by U.S. veterans of the 1991 conflict.

U.S. and British warplanes have been flying daily operations over northern and southern Iraqi "no fly" zones, in part to protect Iraqi opposition groups and neighboring countries from the Iraqi military, including possible chemical and biological weapons attacks.

"This investigation is closed," said Bernard Rostker, the Defense Department's special assistant for gulf war illnesses, though he invited anyone with new information to contact his office.

The Pentagon began the investigation into the Shia incident after witnesses said they saw an Iraqi helicopter dropping large canisters containing a yellow chemical spray over the then-rebel-held city of al-Nasiriyah.

Some recalled seeing civilians being treated by U.S. military medics for burns and blisters, prompting the Pentagon to investigate the incident as a possible contributing factor in gulf war syndrome. .

Interviews were conducted with more than 100 American doctors, medics and nurses who served in the area, but none reported seeing any chemical exposure, according to Thursday's report.

Pentagon investigators also interviewed "hundreds" of military weapons specialists, including the 82nd Airborne Division's nuclear, biological and chemical warfare officer in charge of the al-Nasiriyah sector.

He said he believes the Iraqis may have used conventional tear gas and white phosphorous, which can produce symptoms similar to those inflicted by more deadly chemical weapons.

The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency came to similar conclusions, the report said.

"Investigators concluded that continued efforts would not yield additional insights."

The Tallil air base was hit by a 2,000-pound bomb during the gulf war, and its facilities and munitions were destroyed by members of the 82nd Airborne assigned to the area in the aftermath of the fighting.

A U.S. Air Force demolition technician who searched the Iraqi storage bunker there told investigators he saw no evidence of chemical or conventional weapons--only debris from the 2,000-pound bomb.

In yet another finding, the Pentagon reported Thursday that an investigation into possible Iraqi chemical weapons deployment in a Kuwait minefield along the southern Iraq border failed to produce evidence of chemical exposure to Marines cutting paths through the minefield.